Anxiety And Stress - Use Hypnosis To Overcome Them And Relax

More than ever, research is confirming the essential responsibility of stress in triggering or aggravating a lot of psychological and somatic disorders. A cover story in the June 6, 1983 issue of Time Magazine called stress "The Epidemic of the Eighties." The article also declared that stress is our considerable health issue. Indeed one has to recognize that today's world has become a lot more complex and stressful over the last 25 years since that article was written.

A lot of surveys indicate that almost everybody perceives themselves as being under a great deal of stress. Researchers in this domain estimate that between 75 and 90 percent of the visits to primary care physicians are related to stress.

Most adults say that their job is the primary cause of their stress. Stress levels have also soared in children as well as the senior population because of several reasons including: Peer pressures that often lead to everything from cigarette smoking to alcoholism and drug abuse; the wearing away of religion and family values; growing crime rates; fear for personal security; and last but not least social isolation and loneliness.

Stress contributes to conditions such as diabetes, ulcers, low back and neck pain, high blood pressure, strokes and heart attacks. This is due to the increased sympathetic nervous system activity and a high level of cortisol, adrenaline, and other hormones. Chronic stress is often associated with lower immune system resistance. Stress can cause anxiety, depression, and its several effects on one's organs.
The following definition for "stress" can be found in the American Heritage Dictionary:
"To subject to physical or mental pressure, tension, or strain"

The following definition is given for "tension":
"Mental, emotional, or nervous strain"

The following definition is given for "anxiety":
"A state of uneasiness and apprehension, as about future uncertainties"

And the following is the definition of "depression":
"The condition of feeling sad or despondent"

The following definition is given for "clinical depression":
"A psychiatric disorder characterized by an inability to concentrate, insomnia, loss of appetite, anhedonia, feelings of extreme sadness, guilt, helplessness and hopelessness, and thoughts of death."

We can be sure of one thing, our mind is the first cause of our experience of stress, anxiety and depression. Put differently, what we think about, and our attitudes and points of view about our experiences strongly influence our feelings. That way, if we can discover how to change our thoughts, attitudes, and points of view, we can get rid of our feelings of stress, anxiety, and depression and attain a more positive state of being.

Since the beginning of time, people have searched for methods for releasing stress. The pharmaceutical industry seems to have a drug for everything. And to that end the industry has developed a wide line of tranquilizers from Valium to Xanax. If you choose to utilize these pills for relief, please be sure to pay attention to the fine print and learn about the side effects, which often are, among others, addiction and dependency. Indeed these sorts of drugs aim at curing the symptoms, rather than the cause. So if one stops ingesting them, the symptoms can come back.

A more appropriate way of releasing tension, stress, anxiety, and depression is to try to cure its actual cause, which as I said above, is generally our thought processes. There is some good news. The essence of hypnosis is relaxing. The AMA recognized hypnosis in 1958 as an effective way to treat stress and stress related symptoms. But unlike pills, there are definitely no undesirable side effects.

When you are in hypnosis, you are in the Alpha level of consciousness. It's the daydream like temporary psychological state which we go through as we're about to fall asleep in the evening. And we go through it another time as we wake up again. There are lots of different ways that will help us guide ourselves into this state of tranquility, from step-by-step relaxation to visual imagery to listening to hypnosis CD's.

When we access the hypnotic state, we can communicate with our unconscious mind, which is the seat of our emotions. And one can more easily admit new ideas and points of view which can help us to eliminate anxiety, or even avoid it completely.

Neuro-Linguistic Programming or NLP, which is a recently developed kind of hypnotherapy, has numerous great methods for eliminating stress. Maybe the most effective technique is called the "swish" pattern - or the "flash" pattern. When you use the "swish" pattern, your unconscious will automatically use bad, stress triggering mental images, as triggers for tranquilizing mental images. Otherwise stated, what commonly makes you feel stress will automatically make you feel more relaxed!

TO SUM THINGS UP
Our thoughts can prompt depression, anxiety and tension. So by changing our attitude and point of view towards our situation and what we have been through, we can eliminate these feelings at the root. Hypnosis and NLP are natural tools that allow us to change our attitude and point of view to easily eliminate the main cause of our negative feelings.

Alan B. Densky is an NGH certified hypnotherapist. He offers a complete line of stress reduction NLP CDs, and advanced stress elimination CDs through his Neuro-VISION hypnosis website. You can visit his video hypnosis blog, and download a free MP3.

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